Religion

Social Sciences

The Warmth of Other Suns: the epic story of America’s great migration

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prizendash;winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment,The Warmth of Other Sunsis a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an unrecognized immigration; within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

False Economy: a surprising economic history of the world

High Financier: the lives and times of Siegmund Warburg

In this pathbreaking new biography, based on more than 10,000 hitherto unavailable letters and diary entries, bestselling author Ferguson returns to his roots as a financial historian to tell the story of legendary financier Siegmund Warburg.

Becoming a U.S. Citizen: a guide to the law, exam & interview

Fiance and Marriage Visas: a couples guide to U.S. immigration

“From basic eligibility to details of what documents to prepare, where to send them, and what to expect when immigrating based on engagement or marriage, Fiance and Marriage Visas makes obtaining a visa and green card as painless as possible. The new edition is completely updated, including various procedural changes”–Provided by publisher.

Making Our Democracy Work: a judges view

The Supreme Court is one of the most extraordinary institutions in our system of government. Charged with the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution, the nine unelected justices of the Court have the awesome power to strike down laws enacted by our elected representatives. Why does the public accept the Court’s decisions as legitimate and follow them, even when those decisions are highly unpopular? What must the Court do to maintain the public’s faith? How can the Court help make our democracy work? These are the questions that Justice Stephen Breyer tackles in this groundbreaking book. Today we assume that when the Court rules, the public will obey. But Breyer declares that we cannot take the public’s confidence in the Court for granted. He reminds us that at various moments in our history, the Court’s decisions were disobeyed or ignored. And through investigations of past cases, concerning the Cherokee Indians, slavery, andBrown v. Board of Education,he brilliantly captures the steps—and the missteps—the Court took on the road to establishing its legitimacy as the guardian of the Constitution. Justice Breyer discusses what the Court must do going forward to maintain that public confidence and argues for interpreting the Constitution in a way that works in practice. He forcefully rejects competing approaches that look exclusively to the Constitution’s text or to the eighteenth-century views of the framers. Instead, he advocates a pragmatic approach that applies unchanging constitutional values to ever-changing circumstances—an approach that will best demonstrate to the public that the Constitution continues to serve us well. The Court, he believes, must also respect the roles that other actors—such as the president, Congress, administrative agencies, and the states—play in our democracy, and he emphasizes the Court’s obligation to build cooperative relationships with them. Finally, Justice Breyer examines the Court’s recent decisions concerning the detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, contrasting these decisions with rulings concerning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. He uses these cases to show how the Court can promote workable government by respecting the roles of other constitutional actors without compromising constitutional principles. Making Our Democracy Workis a tour de force of history and philosophy, offering an original approach to interpreting the Constitution that judges, lawyers, and scholars will look to for many years to come. And it further establishes Justice Breyer as one of the Court’s greatest intellectuals and a leading legal voice of our time.

“Ten Thousand Sorrows & Ten Thousand Joysoffers a vision of lives well-led, and of love in the thick of crisis and loss. Beyond inspiring.”-Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence “This beautiful book is unlike any other personal account of living with Alzheimer’s disease that I have ever read . . . it offers patients and families practical insights into how they can live their lives more fully amidst the heartbreak of a mind-robbing illness.”- Paul Raia, Director of Patient Care and Family Support, Alzheimer’s Association, Massachusetts Chapter “A story of courage, love, and growing wisdom in the face of Alzheimer’s.”-Joseph Goldstein, author of One Dharma, Founder / Director of Insight Meditation Society In this profound and courageous memoir, Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle describes how her husband’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis at the age of seventy-two challenged them to live the spiritual teachings they had embraced during the course of their life together. Following a midlife career shift, Harrison Hobliztelle, or Hob as he was called, a former professor of comparative literature at Barnard, Columbia, and Brandeis University, became a family therapist and was ordained a Dharmacharya (senior teacher) by Thich Nhat Hanh. Hob comes to life in these pages as an incredibly funny and brilliant man who never stopped enjoying a good philosophical conversation-even as his mind, quite literally, slipped away from him. And yet when they first heard the diagnosis, Olivia and Hob’s initial reaction was to cling desperately to the life they had had. But everything had changed, and they knew that the only answer was to greet this last phase of Hob’s life consciously and lovingly. Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrowsprovides a wise and compassionate vision for maintaining hope and grace in the face of life’s greatest challenges. (This memoir was originally self-published as The Majesty of Your Loving.)

What a Difference a Dog Makes: big lessons on life, love and healing from a small pooch

A must-read for every dog lover–a short, tender, and uplifting tale of a cancer survivor and the life lessons shared with him by the beloved family dog.

Checks for Vets

Checks for Vets, A Guidebook to Help Wartime Service Veterans and Their Surviving Spouses Receive VA Pensions to Pay for Long-Term Care. Over 1.5 million wartime service veterans and their surviving spouses are eligible for billions of dollars a year in the form of VA pensions to help pay for assisted living and home care. Checks for Vets is an all-in-one resource that will help you discover how these pensions may provide over $23,000 per year of tax-free money to pay for long-term care that is normally paid for out of pocket. The book contains samples of all the forms you need and tips for successfully filing a claim for an Aid and Attendance pension or Housebound pension.The book also helps eligible veterans obtain no-cost pharmacy benefits. A special reference section is included to help locate veteran service officers throughout the United States that are available to answer questions and process pension applications.

Amexica: war along the borderline

“Amexica” is the harrowing story of the extraordinary terror unfolding along the U.S.-Mexico border–“a country in its own right, which belongs to both the United States and Mexico, yet neither”–as the narco-war escalates to a fever pitch there.

Debt-Free U: how I paid for an outstanding college education without loans, scholarships or mooching off my parents

This book can save you over $100,000 These days, most people assume you need to pay a boatload of money for a quality college education. As a result, students and their parents are willing to go into years of debt and potentially sabotage their entire financial futures just to get a fancy name on their diploma. But Zac Bissonnette is walking proof that this assumption is not only false, but dangerous-a class con game designed to rip you off and doom your student to a post-graduation life of near poverty . From his unique double perspective-he’s a personal finance expert (at Daily Finance) AND a current senior at the University of Massachusetts-Zac figured out how to get an outstanding education at a public college, without bankrupting his parents or taking on massive loans. Armed with his personal knowledge, the latest data, and smart analysis, Zac takes on the sacred cows of the higher education establishment. He reveals why a lot of the conventional wisdom about choosing and financing college is not only wrong but hazardous to you and your child’s financial future. You’ll discover, for instance, that: * Student loans are NOT a necessary evil. Ordinary middle class families can- and must-find ways to avoid them, even without scholarships. * College “rankings” are useless-designed to sell magazines and generate hype. If you trust one of the major guides when picking a college, you face a potential financial disaster. * The elite graduate programs accept lots of people with non-elite bachelors degrees. So do America’s most selective employers. The name on a diploma ultimately won’t help your child have a more successful career or earn more money. Zac can prove every one of those bold assertions – and more. No matter what your current financial situation, he has a simple message for parents: “RELAX! Your kid will be able to get a champagne education on a beer budget!”

Southern Living Big Book of Christmas

This must-have, all-in-one guide is filled with more than 300 kitchen-tested recipes, menus, and entertaining tips specially developed for the season, along with over 100 decorating ideas and projects.

Science

The Wave: in pursuit of the rogues, freaks and giants of the ocean

From Susan Casey, bestselling author of The Devil’s Teeth, an astonishing book about colossal, ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out. For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dismissed these stories – waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planet’s waters. They found their proof in February 2000, when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Sea – including several that approached 100 feet. As scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon, others view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge. There are extreme surfers who fly around the world trying to ride the ocean’s most destructive monsters. The pioneer of extreme surfing is the legendary Laird Hamilton, who, with a group of friends in Hawaii, figured out how to board suicidally large waves of 70 and 80 feet. Casey follows this unique tribe of people as they seek to conquer the holy grail of their sport, a 100-foot wave. In this mesmerizing account, the exploits of Hamilton and his fellow surfers are juxtaposed against scientists’ urgent efforts to understand the destructive powers of waves-from the tsunami that wiped out 250,000 people in the Pacific in 2004 to the 1,740-foot-wave that recently leveled part of the Alaskan coast. Like Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, The Wave brilliantly portrays human beings confronting nature at its most ferocious. From the Hardcover edition.

Atlantic: great sea battles, heroic discoveries, titanic storms and a vast ocean of a million stories

From the “New York Times”-bestselling author of “A Crack in the Edge of the World” and “Krakatoa” comes this epic look at the Atlantic Ocean–its history, geography, importance, and wealth of stories.

Into the Storm: violent tornadoes, killer hurricanes, and death-defying adventures in extreme weather

Reed Timmer, a star of the Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers, is one of the world’s most successful and most extreme storm chasers. His is a job that requires science and bravado, knowledge and instinct just to survive, never mind excel. Here, he takes readers inside the awe-inspiring world of big weather. Featuring stories of the over 300 tornadoes, hurricanes, or blizzards that Timmer has watched ringside over the last decade, from Hurricane Katrina to little-studied storm systems in places like Canada and Argentina. As a Ph.D. candidate in meteorology, Timmer is after more than just an adrenaline rush–his stories feature insights into the science of storms, and how the data he is collecting could possibly save lives. He also takes readers inside the storm-chasing community, examining his controversial obsession and the ethical debates it sparks.

Harmony: a new way of looking at our world

In this informational, inspirational work, Charles, the Prince of Wales, describes his views on climate change for the first time, presenting a compelling case that the solution to this problem lies in our ability to regain our balance with nature.

Technology/Applied Science

You Had Me at Woof: how dogs taught me the secrets of happiness

The hilarious and heartfelt chronicle of a woman learning the secrets of love, health, and happiness from some very surprising teachers: her dogs. Julie Klam was thirty, single, and working as a part-time clerk in an insurance company, wondering if she would ever meet the man she could spend the rest of her life with. And then it happened. She met the irresistible Otto, her first in a long line of Boston terriers, and fell instantly in love. You Had Me at Woofis the often hilarious and always sincere story of how one woman discovered life’s most important lessons from her relationships with her canine companions. From Otto, Julie realized what it might feel like to find “the one.” She learned to share her home, her heart, and her limited resources with another, and she found an authentic friend in the process. But that was just the beginning. Over the years her brood has grown to one husband, one daughter, and several Boston terriers. And although she had much to learn about how to care for them-walks at 2 a.m., vet visits, behavior problems-she was surprised and delighted to find that her dogs had more wisdom to convey to her than she had ever dreamed. And caring for them has made her a better person-and completely and utterly opened her heart. Riotously funny and unexpectedly poignant, You Had Me at Woofrecounts the hidden surprises, pleasures, and revelations of letting any mutt, beagle, terrier, or bulldog go charging through your world.

Women, Food and God: an unexpected path to almost everthing

The bestselling author of “When Food Is Love” helps overeaters find the underlying reasons for using food as an emotional buffer. Roth also provides seven basic guidelines for eating and other therapeutic self-help tools.

Every dog owner must make a choice: Do you want a fearful and submissive pet, or do you want a happy, joyful, and well-mannered member of the family?Tamar Geller’s mission in life is to teach her cruelty-free method of “life coaching” for dogs and their people. Her revolutionary play-training uses mutual understanding and respect — and puts an end to outdated methods that rely on physical exhaustion, choke chains, prong collars, dominance rollovers, or stressful aggression of any kind.A former Israeli intelligence officer who witnessed the horrors of military dog training methods, Tamar went on to observe wolves in the wild. She discovered that wolves educate and socialize their cubs with games, bonding, and body language, not dominance or punishment. As a result, she developed teaching systems that address a dog’s authentic nature, part wolflike and part toddlerlike. Learning can be a positive experience that dogs enjoy and look forward to, and we can actually make it fun for our dogs to listen to us and behave as we want them to.Tamar’s insights have brought dog training into the twenty-first century, and her groundbreaking techniques have won the approval of the Humane Society of the United States, for which she is a longtime advisor. Her celebrity clients include Oprah Winfrey, Ben Affleck, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Owen Wilson, and the Osbournes, and she has appeared as an expert on the Today show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Animal Planet, and more.InThe Loved Dog,Tamar gives you all the instruction, insights, and tips you need to teach your dog good manners, as well as to troubleshoot specific problems and unwanted behaviors. She helps you and your dog learn a common language, resulting in a loving, respectful relationship that will bring you years of joy and companionship. Tamar’s play-training approach is so gentle, even children can get involved.Whether you use Tamar’s methods to raise a puppy or teach an old dog new tricks, you’ll loveThe Loved Dog.

Barefoot Contessa, How Easy is That?

Ina Garten, bestselling cookbook author and beloved star of Barefoot Contessa on Food Network, is back with her easiest recipes ever. In Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? Ina proves once again that it doesn’t take complicated techniques, special equipment, or stops at more than one grocery store to make wonderful dishes for your family and friends. Her newest must-have cookbook is all about saving time and avoiding stress while having fun in the kitchen. These are not recipes with three ingredients thrown together in five minutes; instead home cooks will find fantastic Barefoot Contessa recipes that are easy to make but still have all that deep, delicious flavor Ina is known for-and that makes a meal so satisfying. Think Pink Grapefruit Margaritas served with Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs-two classics with a twist. For lunch, Ina makes everyone’s favorite Ultimate Grilled Cheese sandwich and Snap Peas with Pancetta. For dinner, try Jeffrey’s Roast Chicken (tried and true!); Steakhouse Steaks, which come out perfectly every time and-with Ina’s easy tip-couldn’t be simpler; or an Easy Parmesan “Risotto” that you throw in the oven instead of stirring endlessly on the stovetop. Finally, Ina’s desserts never disappoint-from Red Velvet Cupcakes to Chocolate Pudding Cream Tart. To top it all off, Ina also shares her best tips for making cooking really easy. She leaves bowls of lemons and limes on the counter not only because they look great but because they also remind her that a squeeze of lemon in a dish brightens the flavors. She shows us the equipment that makes a difference to her-like sharp knives, the right zester, an extra bowl for her electric mixer-and that can help you in your kitchen, too. Filled with 225 gorgeous full-color photographs,Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?is the perfect kitchen companion for busy home cooks who still want fabulous flavor.

Fix-It and Forget-It Christmas Cookbook

“You absolutely can make holiday meals with ease and with pleasure!” says slow-cooker champion Phyllis Pellman Good. Her latest collection, Fix-It and Forget-It Christmas Cookbook: 600 Slow-Cooker Holiday Recipes, will fill your head with menu ideas, give you gentle guidance with each recipe, and deliver dishes that your friends and family will love. “Stop your fretting. Put an end to the nightmares. Get out your slow cookers!” Good urges. “These are 600 stand-out, slow-cooker recipes – all from home cooks from across the country. These are 600 manageable, slow-cooker recipes – from cooks who want to feast with their loved ones without being exhausted and frazzled. Most of us prepare dozens of meals during the 60 days between early November and early January. Your slow cooker and these recipes can come to your rescue – whether you’re making late suppers, family brunches, hot drinks in the afternoon, or scrumptious meals of celebration from Thanksgiving to New Year’s.”

The Complete Guide to the Green Home: the good citizen’s guide to Earth friendly remodeling and home maintenance

Go Green & Gain Peace of MindWith this book, readers can sleep well knowing their remodeling and repair practices are protecting the environment and keeping their families healthy. This beautiful step-by-step guide features a host of practical projects and practices for green-thinking homeowners with a hands-on attitude. Offering a boost for the spirit, a refresher for the body and a balm for the planet, it is a comprehensive primer for eco-friendly home stewardship.Black & Decker The Complete Guide to The Green Homeis the first home remodeling book to recognize both the broadening appeal of green practices and the fact that working within those guidelines can be done without extraordinary methods or premium prices. From kitchen remodeling to landscaping to installing lighting and flooring, there is hardly an aspect of modern homeownership that canóÇÖt be conducted with a preference for sustainable products, efficient energy use and reduced toxicity. Truly consumer-friendly, this new book presents a succession of manageable green projects shown with detailed photography and accompanied by sound instructions. Part of the industry-leadingBlack & Decker The Complete Guideline of books,The Complete Guide to The Green Homeis a hardworking handbook for home remodeling and maintenance that improves our quality of life while remaining easy on the Earth.

Appetite for America: how visionary businessman Fred Harvey built a railroad hospitality empire that civilized the Wild West

Fried tells the story of Fred Harvey who came to the U.S. from England in the 1850s, worked for the railroads, and at the age of 40 had an idea that would forever change the way Americans eat, drink, sleep, and travel: a trackside eatery. bw photo insert.

Point, Click and Save: Mashup’s mom guide to saving and making money online

Mashup Mom is a widely read blogger who combines high-and low-tech strategies from multiple sources to help readers achieve financial objectives. In Point, Click, and Save, she presents the tips and tools you need to “mash up” your own defense against tough economic times.

Arts and Recreation

Simple Times

According to Amy Sedaris, it’s often been said that ugly people craft and attractive people have sex. But in her new book SIMPLE TIMES she sets the record straight, doing for crafting what she did so brilliantly and successfully for entertaining in her bestseller I Like You. Demonstrating that crafting is one of life’s more pleasurable and constructive leisure activities, Sedaris shows us that anyone with a couple of hours to kill and access to pipe cleaners can join the elite society of crafters. Readers will discover how to make popular crafts such as crab claw roach clips, tinfoil balls and crepe paper moccasins; where to look for inspiration (buy fruit and let it get old, what shapes does it turn into?); instructions for creating your very own craft room; and ways to avoid the most common crafting accidents (sawdust fires, feather asphyxia, pine cone lodged in throat); plus whole chapters full of crafting ideas (pompom ringworms!) that will inspire you to create your own hastily constructed obscure d’arts; and more of the brilliant recipes and ingenious ideas for hostessing and entertaining that she gave us in I Like You.

The Making of Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back

In this lavish thirtieth-anniversary tribute to the blockbuster filmStar Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, New York Timesbestselling author J. W. Rinzler draws back the curtain to reveal the intense drama and magnificent wizardry behind the hit movie-arguably the fan favorite of theStar WarsSaga. Following hisThe Making of Star Wars,the author has once again made use of his unlimited access to the Lucasfilm Archives and its hidden treasures of previously unpublished interviews, photos, artwork, and production mementos. The result is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes, up-close-and-personal look at the trials and triumphs, risks and close calls, inspiration, perspiration, and imagination that went into every facet of this cinematic masterpiece. Herersquo;s the inside scoop on: bull; the evolution of the script, from story conference and treatment to fifth draft, as conceived, written, and rewritten by George Lucas, famed science-fiction author Leigh Brackett, and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan bull; the development of new key characters, including roguish hero Lando Calrissian, sinister bounty hunter Boba Fett, and iconic Jedi Master Yoda bull; the challenges of shooting the epic ice planet battle in the frozen reaches of Norway and of conjuring up convincing creatures and craft-from tauntauns and snowspeeders to Imperial walkers bull; the construction of a life-sizedMillennium Falconand the swamp planet Dagobah inside a specially built soundstage in Elstree Studios bull; the technique behind master Muppeteer Frank Ozrsquo;s breathing life into the breakthrough character Yoda bull; the creation of the new, improved Industrial Light & Magic visual effects facility and the founding of the now-legendary Skywalker Ranch In addition, of course, are rare on-the-scene interviews with all the major players: actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and David Prowse; director Irvin Kershner; producer Gary Kurtz; effects specialists Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, and Phil Tippett; composer John Williams; and many others. Punctuating the epic account is a bounty of drawings, storyboards, and paintings by Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, and Ivor Beddoes, along with classic and rare production photos. An added bonus is a Foreword by acclaimed director Ridley Scott. The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Backis a fittingly glorious celebration of an undisputed space-fantasy movie milestone. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

The Tiger: true story of vengeance and survival

It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: the tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again. As he re-creates these extraordinary events, John Vaillant gives us an unforgettable portrait of this spectacularly beautiful and mysterious region. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers, even sharing their kills with them. We witness the arrival of Russian settlers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, soldiers and hunters who greatly diminished the tiger populations. And we come to know their descendants, who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching and further upset the natural balance of the region. This ancient, tenuous relationship between man and predator is at the very heart of this remarkable book. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters, and how earlyHomo sapiensmay have fit seamlessly into the tiger’s ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator that can grow to ten feet long, weigh more than six hundred pounds, and range daily over vast territories of forest and mountain. Beautifully written and deeply informative,The Tigercircles around three main characters: Vladimir Markov, a poacher killed by the tiger; Yuri Trush, the lead tracker; and the tiger himself. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga. From the Hardcover edition.

Literature

My Nest Isn’t Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space

Critics and readers loved Lisa Scottoline’s first collection of true-life stories, which only encouraged her–now she’s back with these all-new, exciting adventures. She’s farther down the road now, and the scenery has changed ex-husbands Thing One and Thing Two are in her rear-view mirror, daughter Francesca has moved into an apartment, and Lisa’s finding the silver lining in her empty nest, which has lots more room for her shoes. And some things have stayed the same Mother Mary is still the feistiest octogenarian on the planet, who won’t part with her recipe for tomato sauce or her thirty-year old bra.In this book Lisa and Francesca spill all their family secrets which sound a lot like yours, if you understand that three generations of women is the formula for spontaneous combustion.Inspired by her weekly column entitled, “Chick W” for The Philadelphia Inquirer, this is a book you’ll have to put down just to stop laughing.

I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas

From the uproarious and perpetually apoplectic “New York Times”-bestselling author and “The Daily Show” regular comes a ferociously funny book about his least-favorite holiday: Christmas.

You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know

An unusual and uncommonly moving family memoir, with a twist that give new meaning to hindsight, insight, and forgiveness. Heather Sellers is face-blind-that is, she has prosopagnosia, a rare neurological condition that prevents her from reliably recognizing people’s faces. Growing up, unaware of the reason for her perpetual confusion and anxiety, she took what cues she could from speech, hairstyle, and gait. But she sometimes kissed a stranger, thinking he was her boyfriend, or failed to recognize even her own father and mother. She feared she must be crazy. Yet it was her mother who nailed windows shut and covered them with blankets, made her daughter walk on her knees to spare the carpeting, had her practice secret words to use in the likely event of abduction. Her father went on weeklong “fishing trips” (aka benders), took in drifters, wore panty hose and bras under his regular clothes. Heather clung to a barely coherent story of a “normal” childhood in order to survive the one she had. That fairy tale unraveled two decades later when Heather took the man she would marry home to meet her parents and began to discover the truth about her family and about herself. As she came at last to trust her own perceptions, she learned the gift of perspective: that embracing the past as it is allows us to let it go. And she illuminated a deeper truth-that even in the most flawed circumstances, love may be seen and felt.

Hailed as a classic of war writing in the U.K., “The Junior Officers’ ReadingClub” is a revelatory firsthand account of a young enlistee’s profound comingof age.

Bushy Run Battlefield

After the French and Indian War, the British claimed control of the Forks of the Ohio. The Indians of the area felt threatened by hard-fisted British control and began seizing forts in the Ohio Valley. This guidebook focuses on the turning point of the resulting Pontiac’s War, the Battle of Bushy Run, fought near Jeanette, Pennsylvania, in August 1763, between several Indian nations and three British regiments led by Col. Henry Bouquet.

American Caesars

Modeled on one of the most famous histories of ancient Rome, “The Twelve Caesars,” Hamilton looks afresh at the lives and careers of the 12 leaders of the American empire since World War II, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush.

Crimes Against Liberty

As Americans, liberty is an inalienable right that is granted to us by God, protected by the Constitution, and upheld by our government. Yet, Barack Obama doesn’t seem to share that view. To him, liberty is a threat to the government’s power and something to be squashed by any means possible, as bestselling author David Limbaugh shows to devastating affect in his new book, Crimes Against Liberty. In Crimes Against Liberty, Limbaugh issues a damning indictment of President Barack Obama for encroaching upon and stripping us of our individual and sovereign rights. Laying out his case like he would a criminal complaint, Limbaugh presents the evidence—count-by-count—against Obama. From exploiting the financial crisis for political gain, to restricting our personal freedoms through invasive healthcare and “green” policies, to endangering America with his feckless diplomacy and reckless dismantlement of our national security systems, Limbaugh proves—beyond a reasonable doubt—that Obama is guilty of crimes against liberty. Comprehensive and compelling, this is Limbaugh in his most powerful book yet.

Even Silence Has an End

A Bolt of Lightning tore through the forest, landing a few yards from me. In a burst of light, the space around me was revealed in all its horror. I was surrounded by gigantic trees, and was only two steps from falling into a ravine. I stopped short, totally blinded. I squatted to catch my breath among the roots of the tree just before me. I was on the verge of finally taking out my flashlight when I noticed intermittent flashes of light in the distance, headed my way. I could hear their voices now. They must be very near, because I heard one of them shout that he had already seen me. I camouflaged myself among the roots of the old tree while praying to the Lord to make me invisible.

Boy Dylan in America

One of America’s finest historians shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the country’s greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years. Growing up in Greenwich Village, Sean Wilentz discovered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager; almost half a century later, he revisits Dylan’s work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan. Drawn in part from Wilentz’s essays as historian in residence; of Dylan’s official website,Bob Dylan in Americais a unique blend of fact, interpretation, and affinity-a book that, much like its subject, shifts gears and changes shape as the occasion warrants. Beginning with his explosion onto the scene in 1961, this book follows Dylan as he continues to develop a body of musical and literary work unique in our cultural history. Wilentz’s approach places Dylan’s music in the context of its time, including the early influences of Popular Front ideology and Beat aesthetics, and offers a larger critical appreciation of Dylan as both a songshy;writer and performer down to the present. Wilentz has had unprecedented access to studio tapes, recording notes, rare photographs, and other materials, all of which allow him to tell Dylan’s story and that of such masterpieces as Blonde on Blondewith an unprecedented authenticity and richness. Bob Dylan in America-groundbreaking, comprehensive, totally absorbing-is the result of an author and a subject brilliantly met.